30 SECONDS TO MARS








Probably we’re not even 30 seconds to Mars as the famous American rock band like to imagine, but we’re close to be so. Science fiction? No. Mars colonization is a real project to which various nations are working together, a project that is going to become reality in a few years, as the prof. Gaetano Vacca explained to the students of the Liceo Classico Domenico Morea of Conversano (BA), during a congress held on April 22nd in the city’s castle.





During his absorbing speech, the professor illustrated the history of space exploration from the first objects in the space, the V2 rockets by Wernher von Braun, to the first living being (the dog Laika) and man (Jurij Gagarin), to the first men on the Moon (Neil Armstrong -with whom Vacca had the pleasure to have an exchange of views while in the USA- and Buzz Aldrin), to the last, but not latest, missions to Mars: from the first lander, Mars 3, which landed successfully, to the first colorful pictures from the planet and to the last rovers, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity, sent to Mars with the aim to investigate the ability of the planet to support life.


Full professor of Mechanical and Thermal Measurements at the Polythecnic of Bari, Vacca worked also in the USA, where he got his Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, cooperating with prof. Grossman on computational fluidynamics tasks at Virginia Tech.«The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever», said Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, father of human spaceflight, and of the same opinion are also lots of scientists who are working for the colonization of Mars. As Prof. Vacca explained, the aim is to terraform Mars through the input of greenhouse gases in its atmosphere, so that colonies of astronauts can settle there forever and experience life on Mars for the future colonization by civilians.
A project that is going to make science fiction science before we realize it.

Adriana Sisto, V B
Docenti referenti: Luisa Brattico, Anna Stella Minervini

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